Jeffrey Salkin, at the Jewish Daily Forward, has an interesting rumination on Pope Francis’s attempt to establish a balance in the proclamations of the Catholic Church. He imagines what a similar change of emphasis could do for Jewish engagement in society.

“One had the impression — confirmed by people coming from Rome with the latest gossip from ‘that miserable court’ — that in Rome a whole team of people was applying itself to sabotaging the Pope’s project. .. One had a clear impression that in Rome, the ‘old guard’ in the Curia felt it was in danger and was doing all in its power to avoid it, while at the same time playing along with the new pontificate since a NEW pontificate was what they were faced with. The danger was that some of the reins of government were slipping away from them.”

“The Council Fathers knew that being open to modern culture meant religious ecumenism and dialogue with non-believers. But afterwards very little was done in that direction. I have the humility and ambition to want to do something.” – Pope Francis